The Origin of Freemasonry and Knights Templar ... - Lodge Prudentia

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLAReon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad,Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin. TheLevites were set aside tojiave exclusive jurisdictionover the national worship, and as they were not toinherit lands, the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim andManasseh, were chosen as their father's representativesand became progenitors in the twelve tribesof Israel. The tribe of Levi received, instead ofa province, forty-eight cities scattered throughoutCanaan and the tenth part of the fruits of the field,and were allowed generally to settle throughout theland where they chose. Aaron, who was Moses'brother, of the tribe of Levites, by a miraculousjudgment, became the first high priest. Moses directedthat twelve rods should be laid up in the Holyof Holies of the tabernacle, one for each tribe; thename of Aaron on one rod to represent the tribe ofLevi, and Moses said, "The man's rod whom I shallchoose shall blossom." On the next day these rodswere brought out and exhibited to the people,and while all the rest remained dry and withered,that of Aaron alone budded and blossomed andyielded fruit (Num. xvii.). Philo-Judaeus saysthat "Moses was instructed by the Egyptianpriests in the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphicsas well as in the mysteries of the sacredanimals." The sacred historian tells us he was"learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians"; andManetho and other traditionary writers tell us thathe was educated at Heliopolis as a priest, under hisEgyptian name of Osarsiph, and that there he wastaught the whole range of literature and science,which it was customary to impart to the priesthoodof Egypt. It is not strange, when he began in the27